Bearing specialists elect new board at annual convention (June 01, 2008)

Glen Ellyn, IL — At its 2008 Annual Convention April 26-29, 2008, at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, NV, the Bearing Specialists Association (BSA) elected the following slate of 2008- 2009 officers: president, Steve Durston, Jamaica Bearings Company Inc., New Hyde Park, NY; first vice-president, Eduardo Bichara, Baleromex, S. A. de

C. V., Mexico City, Mexico; second vice-president, Ellen Holladay, Motion Industries Inc., Birmingham, AL; treasurer, Howard Gainey, Bearings and Drives Inc., Macon, GA; and chairman of the Board (the title held by the immediate past president), Cam Lawrence, BDI Canada Inc., Mississauga, ON.

Hal Allen, Allied Bearings and Supply Co. Inc., Tulsa, OK; Bill DuComb, W. C. DuComb Company, Detroit, MI; and John Timble, Bearing Headquarters Company, Broadview, IL; were each elected to serve as directors for three-year terms. Geoff Filker, Eastern Bearings Inc., Waltham, MA, was elected to serve as director for a one-year term on the board.

BSA members continuing to serve the association as members of the board in 2008-2009 are: Gordon Duncan, Kinecor Inc., Lachine, QC; Craig Gipson, Gipson Bearing & Supply, West Homestead, PE; Tom Armold, Applied Industrial Technologies, Cleveland, OH; Doug Savage, Bearing Service Inc., Livonia, MI; and James D. Webster, DXP Enterprises, Houston, TX.

The event was attended by 73 distributor members and 94 manufacturer members, along with 86 spouses.

In assuming his new role in the association, Durston listed four goals he has for the coming year:

1. Simplify the strategic plan, ensuring BSA is concentrating on providing the members with what they are looking for from the association for the coming years.

2. Continue to enhance the programs available to the members through the various committees.

3. Provide a convention second to none in 2009.

4. Ensure the BSA continues to be the association everyone both must, and wants, to belong to.

Durston’s international background reflects the increasingly global scope of the bearing industry. He was born in Cambridge, England, and attained an FTC in Aerospace Operational Technology from Southall College of Technology.

After working first for British Airways and then for Saudi Arabian Airlines in Jeddah in an engineering capacity, he joined Barden Bearings in the United Kingdom in 1984. Durston worked there in product engineering and then in field sales.

He joined Jamaica Bearings in November 1989 to become European sales manager, and in 1993 moved to New York to become director of aerospace sales.

Reflecting on the international turns his career has taken, Durston said, “Transferring from the U. K. to New York presents it own challenges, as I would not consider New York representational of the rest of the U. S. A. Saudi Arabia somewhat prepared me for working in America, as we worked hand in hand with many of your natives.”

But, he says, “The U. S. work mentality is very different from Europe. Europeans tend to work to live; Americans much more live to work.”

BSA is an international service and educational organization of authorized distributors representing a total of nearly 100 companies distributing factory-warranted ball-, roller-, and anti-friction bearings and invited manufacturers of bearings and related products.

For more information, contact the BSA office at 630-858-3838; e-mailinfo@bsahome.org or visit the website at www.bsahome.org.